Antidepressants Tied To Preterm Births: Study-Try telling this to NH DCYF and Nashua Family Court!

Antidepressants Tied To Preterm Births: Study

By Ed Silverman // January 22nd, 2010 // 12:06 pm

Among nearly 3,000 women who gave birth in Washington State, those who started taking SSRI antidepressants in the second or third trimester had a higher risk of preterm birth, according to Reuters, which cites a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Compared with others not given the meds, the women were nearly five times more likely to deliver prematurely. The same risk was not seen, however, among women who started on an SSRI before pregnancy or during the first trimester.

The study also found a higher risk of preterm delivery among women who took anti-anxiety drugs known as benzodiazepines, regardless of when they began treatment, Reuters continues. Those drugs, which include meds such as lorazepam (Ativan) and alprazolam (Xanax), were linked to higher risks of other complications, including low birth weight, newborn respiratory distress and a low Apgar score, which measures newborn health. The SSRIs, by the way, include Lilly’s Prozac, GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil and Pfizer’s Zoloft.

But the meaning isn’t clear, because the study couldn’t estimate treatment benefits. And SSRIs didn’t appear to present equal risks for all women. “It is very important to have other studies of the risks associated with (these) drugs, but also of benefits associated with treating mothers,” Ronit Calderon-Margalit of the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health in Jerusalem tells Reuters.

http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/01/antidepressants-tied-to-preterm-births-study/